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How to do things in Money: Data/File Management

Q) What should I do to close the year in my data file? Should I archive?

A) Lots of people want to do something to "close" out a year's worth of data in Money. There isn't really any need to do anything. Money will happily carry on from here. Any need to look at data by year is best accomplished with customized reports. But you may also want to make a "snapshot" of the data to file with your taxes or similar records for the year. Lots of people think, reasonably enough, that Money's Archive or Backup functions are somehow useful for this. Perhaps not.

Understand that:

A Backup is supposed to be a file that enables you to Restore a file exactly as your data file was at the point in time where the backup was performed. Money's backup cannot always achieve this.

An Archive is a copy of your entire data file at a given point in time but just before the archiving function destructively and irreversibly removes a bunch of data from, and modifies other data in, the main data file you intend to use going forward. I do not recommend archiving. All pain. No gain.

If you want to have a high-probability-of-recoverability of your Money data as far into the future as my crystal ball can see, there are two things I recommend:

1) Make a copy (not a Money File|Backup, just a Windows Explorer File Copy) of the .MNY file as it now exists, and burn it onto a CD-R or two. Use the quality media for this. (The $0.02 per disc white label media may be great for your MP3s, but this is serious data we are talking about here.) Turn off all of the esoteric burning format options. (The system that you need to read this on may not have been invented yet so it is best to stay mainstream.) Test the CD-R(s) in at least one, if not several, other machines to make sure you can read the file back correctly. (The burner that burned the CD may be the only drive in the world that can actually read it.) Label the CD-R(s) with the exact version of Money that wrote the file, as displayed in Help|About. (This will be something like 14.0.115.1105.) File at least one of the CD-Rs in your safe deposit box or other off-site location. This will be usable as long as you can run the noted Money version or a future Money version that supports that file format. Money File|Backup should provide a 100% path back to the original data file. For all too many people it does not seem to do this.

2) Create two favorite reports. One is Account Transactions for all accounts and the other is Investment Transactions for all accounts including closed accounts. Customize them to the date range for all of the year you want to capture and set all of the flags for every column to appear. Clear any other customization that filters out data. Spot check the resulting reports to confirm that you haven't accidentally left anything out. Then do one or more of the following: a) print to paper, b) print to .PDF or Microsoft Office Imaging files, c) "Export to Excel" .CSV (comma separated value) format files. (.CSV files can be read by Excel but they can also be read with Notepad or any other text editor and are easy for even savvy 12 year olds to write programs to parse back into more usable forms.) If you make the files, follow guidance above for what to do with them. If you print the reports, save a copy with, say, your tax returns and associated data. These will be usable for access to the data--but not by Money--in the event some point in the future arrives and there is no Money version that can read the data file from #1. It will not get all of the data (quotes, payee addresses, loan terms, account details like account numbers, comments, and credit limit are all lost this way) but it's about as good as Money will let you get.

Please see this disclaimer if you are using Money 2005 or this comment if you are using Money 2006.

If this kind of stuff is important to you: